Hey folks, sorry for the delay! Yesterday was crazy busy for me; my oldest brother is off to Hong Kong for the week, and I had to take him to the airport. On top of that, I was suddenly seized by the realization that I need to start thinking about grad schools again, because stupid me wasn't happy with the first path I picked for myself... yup. Anyway, sorry for the vent (you guys are such good listeners though ;-D), hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 38

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

"Hurry, hurry," Majora whispered at Byrne's back, her voice hissing into his ear like an annoying insect.

"Relax, would you?" Byrne snapped back, glancing over his shoulder at her.

They were, to the best of knowledge, crawling underneath a mountain, a process that, thanks to Majora, was going much faster than he thought it would. The maze of stalagmites made him feel disorganized, and even though he had no idea where he was Majora seemed to be able to identify their location just by looking at the shape of the rocks around them. Save for a few comments on how much taller the stalagmites had gotten since she'd last been through there, Majora had been quiet until now. Now Byrne wished she would go back to commenting on the rocks, because her constant pushing to pick up the pace was starting to unnerve him.

Finally they reached the temple, and then, crossing the wide cavern, its doors. "Well go on!" Majora said eagerly, her fingers twitching towards the doors but then pulling back. "Open them!"

Rolling his eyes and wondering why he had to do everything, Byrne shoved them open and stepped inside without much ceremony. Majora paused for a brief moment just outside. Her eyes slid closed as she breathed in the air, and a nostalgic bliss flitted across her normally blank face.

"Oh how I've missed this place," she said quietly.

"I thought you were in a hurry," Byrne said.

Her eyes snapped open and her expression cleared. "Quite right. This way."

Hallways, a dining hall, more hallways. Byrne didn't recognize any of them, even though Majora had claimed he must have seen at least some of them. After rounding yet another corner, Byrne spotted two guards shuffling down the hallway away from them, seemingly oblivious to the newcomers as they gripped at heavily dented helmets.

"I tell you, we don't get paid enough for this," one of the guards griped. "Let's just go back to guarding the library. At least that's in our job description. Not chasing down escaped prisoners and getting slammed into walls."

"Things just aren't the way they used to be, that's for sure," said the other guard, sounding just as pained.

"You said it. Why does the temple even have prisoners? Never used to before."

Byrne was about to recommend they try another hallway - because these guys had obviously been through enough, if their world-weary voices were anything to go by - when that hissing voice in his ear returned.

"Just knock them out," Majora whispered.

The voice was oddly compelling, and before he could really consider the words he was already stepping forward. With a roll of his shoulders, Byrne charged towards the pair. They fell easily under his fists, and only one managed to let out a surprised squeak before he, too, fell unconscious along with his friend.

"Oh well done," Majora praised as Bynre quickly pushed them towards the side so the floor was clear to walk on. "Let's keep moving."

Byrne nodded at her and was about to do just that when a flurry of movement in the corner of his eye brought his attention towards the woman's hands. They were moving sharply and abruptly, a subtle shade of purple light flitting between her fingers.

"What are you..." Byrne looked back down at the people he had knocked out. A pool of blood was gathering underneath them even as their skin quickly turned an unnatural pale. Byrne rounded on Majora and shoved her into the wall. "What the hell? I thought you said you didn't want to kill anyone."

Majora let out a little laugh. "I might have lied. Just a little though," she said, holding up her thumb and forefinger so that they were just a hair's breadth apart.

Byrne growled in the back of his throat, but Majora didn't seem fazed at all by the man towering over her. She clapped her hands in front of his face loudly. "Forget this!"

"Forget what?!" Byrne snapped. There was a lingering sense of disgust flowing through him, but why it was there he couldn't say. "Who are you? Where am I?" He gazed about him, his breath catching in his throat when he caught sight of the dead guards. "...What happened here?"

"Come along, Byrne," Majora said. "We have to keep moving, before whatever did that finds us."

"Yeah... yeah, ok," Byrne quickly grabbed the older woman's arm and guided her around the bodies.

The rest of the trip was a bit of a blur for Byrne. By the time they reached a set of large, double doors, Byrne wasn't even certain he knew his own name.

"This is it," Majora breathed out eagerly. "I'll deal with my clone, I need you to do something else now."

"Clone... what?"

"Hmm. I know you're confused, but do try to focus on what I'm saying."

Focus. Byrne could do that. His mind was a mess of jumbled, foggy images of bodies covered in blood and people he didn't recognize; having someone tell him what to do would be a blessing right now. "What do you need?"

"Inside the throne room there's a mirror. It's hidden in a back room, behind the throne. While I deal with my clone, I need you to activate the mirror for me."

"...Activate it?"

"You'll have to drag it out to the garden. It needs sunlight." Majora snapped her fingers underneath his nose. "Listen. Go to the back room. Drag the mirror down the hall and through the door you'll see there. Then place it under sunlight, and touch the glass."

"That's it?"

"That's it. You'll be home, and our deal will be complete."

"Sounds easy enough," Byrne said with a shrug, even though he couldn't remember the deal they had made at all.

Majora reached up and patted him on the cheek. "You'd think so, wouldn't you? Ready?"

"Yeah."

With a grin on her face, Majora flung the doors open.

"Ready?"

Link stood tensed at the river bank, staring down at the spot where it traveled underground, completely devoid of any air for who knew how long. They had waited a solid hour; plenty of time for Zelda and the Gorons to get into position.

"Sure. Let's get this over with. If I drown don't tell Zelda."

King Zora laughed; it was a strange sounding noise, coming from a fish, and sounded more like someone gargling water than an actual laugh. "Don't worry. I'll tell her you died valiantly... saving children?"

"Children, yeah, that sounds good," Link replied.

Then Link felt King Zora's webbed hands grip him around the waist, and with a rush of air he was pulled upwards as the Zora leaped. Link filled his lungs - and prayed that it wouldn't be the last time he did so - just before they entered the water with barely a splash. Warm bubbles crashed into his face as other Zora swam around them.

The smooth, eroded rock walls around him flew by in a blur, giving Link his only hint at how fast they were going. Link tried to keep track of how much time was passing, but in the swirl of rushing water and fins he quickly lost count of the seconds. He instead put all his focus in trying not to think about the lack of breathable oxygen around him. Naturally, trying not to think about something made him think about it even more. His lungs felt as if they were about to explode when a thick, stone wall finally came into view. They had reached the fountain.

From his viewpoint behind several other Zora, Link could make out a small hole in the wall. This was most likely where the water flowed through at a more manageable level, to help water whatever plants grew in the temple's garden. There was also some sort of filter halfway between it, more than likely to remove the salt before the water reached its destination. It was around this hole that the Zora laid their new explosives.

With a nod from the lead Zora, everyone floated backwards a short distance. Link wished he could tell them to back up a bit more, because they were still rather close in his opinion. But then the charges blew, and Link's vision was filled with an explosion of frothy bubbles and small splinters of stone.

As the wall blew outward, the water quickly followed. Link felt the tight grip that Zora had on him slip away as they were pushed forward violently, towards sunlight and green. On his own now, Link quickly kicked out and used his one good arm to pull himself upwards on the rushing water. His head cleared the surface for a second before he was pulled back under by a sudden drop.

The entire army fell down a short waterfall before landing in a quickly swelling river. Pushing his way back up again, Link gazed around. They were in what should have been a tranquil stream, with stone walls keeping the water flowing straight through a field of green grass and bushes with bright flowers. Now it was flooded. The water forced itself over the stone walls, uprooting grass and bending at trees as it raced to the corners of the indoor garden.

Link joined the army of Zoras as they climbed up the bank and began to slosh around in the muddy ground. Already the water reached up to Link's ankles, and by the look of the large, gaping hole they had created in the fountain, the flood wasn't about to let up anytime soon.

"Perhaps the Gorons over did it?" King Zora asked nervously.

"Well by the looks of things there's no guards," Link said as he pulled out his weapon. "If the Gorons are overdoing it outside as much as they did here, we're in good shape."

"Very true! Let's go. We need to get to the throne room and find the tribe's queen."

Link nodded, and was soon running alongside King Zora as they led the charge towards the doors. His feet were soon free of the swirling mud as he bounded up a small flight of stairs to the garden's exit. With a nod to each other, he and the king of the Zora kicked the doors open, revealing several bowmen standing at the ready.

"Down!" Link shouted, reacting even as he shouted the warning. He leaped to the side, grabbing King Zora and pulling him down with him. They hit the edge of the deck and then rolled over it, falling back into the water after a short drop down. Pained, garbled screams quickly followed the twang of bowstrings, but they were cut off as the water rushed over Link's head.

Releasing his grip on Zora, he sat up, hair and mud plastered to the sides of his face. Zora appeared by his side, shaking his pointed head like a dog. Jumping back to his feet, only to find that the water was no closer to his knees, he splashed back to the stairs with King Zora right behind him. In the corner of his eye he caught sight of several other Zora impaled by long arrows, but there was no time to help them.

While the enemy was still stringing fresh arrows onto their bows, Link charged forward. He could hear King Zora and the other unwounded Zora close behind him. As they drew near, the bowmen gave up on their bows and quickly unsheathed long daggers. Targeting the man in the very middle, Link ducked under the swipe of his dagger and lunged forward.

He heard the surprised grunt of the other man as his own spear blade pierced through the other's armor. At his sides he could hear the clashing of steal and several more screams filling the hallway. A sudden movement in the corner of his eye had him instinctively pulling his weapon out of the now dead guard and swiping it towards this new threat. The shaft of his half-spear collided with the steel blade of another dagger, just inches away from his neck.

Link turned to face his next attacker, coming face to face with someone much younger than himself. The younger man had swung at Link with such force that his dagger was now stuck, embedded in the wood of the spear. Rushing forward, Link crashed his bad shoulder into the man's side, knocking him off balance. The kid was clearly just as inexperienced as he was young, because even with his feet off balance he tried to stubbornly hold onto his useless dagger. Pulling downwards, Link yanked the dagger hilt out of the man's hand and then struck out again, sinking the tip of his spear into the man's side.

The young face took on a look of surprise as any color it had had drained from it. Filing it away for something to remind himself not to feel guilty about later, Link turned the other way, barely even noticing the heavy thud as the body fell to the floor. The other attackers were down, along with two more Zora. Link caught King Zora's eyes and the two nodded at each other, a silent message that they were both fine so far.

Leaving two more behind to care for their wounded, the others continued the charge. Link was slightly ahead of King Zora now, the solid ground giving him a much easier time to run just as the muddy water had been more convenient for the Zora. As they rounded another corner, the sight of yet more people had him sliding to a stop.

For a brief moment his heightened instincts for survival transformed the huddle into yet more attackers, but then his eyes caught up with his brain. These weren't attackers. They weren't a threat at all, because they were already dead. A pool of drying blood sat underneath them, though there were no obvious signs of any severe wounds.

"Looks like someone got ahead of us," King Zora said with a frown.

Link bent down beside a paling man and pulled the cloth collar of his robe down, revealing a crisscrossing pattern of deep wounds all along his neck. "This wasn't done by one of ours."

Looking up, he noticed King Zora looked a little more green than usual. He quickly pulled the collar back up and stood. "Let's keep going."

They pressed on, but just a bit slower this time, and with a bit more caution. Now, every hall they crossed held even more dead bodies. While Link knew that they needed to slow their pace and keep an eye out for whoever - or whatever - had done this, every bone in his body wanted to run. To find Rosy. A lot had happened in this place, and it took all his self control to not start screaming her name. Could a fourteen year old survive whatever had torn through this place?

Thanks for reading! And no, don't worry, I didn't completely skip over the Goron and Zelda's side of the attack. That'll be next chapter, so stay tuned and have a great week!